graduand

28 January 2026

Graduand is a rare but useful word. It refers to a student who has completed all the requirements for a degree but has yet to graduate. It is from the Medieval Latin graduandus, the gerundive form of the verb graduare, meaning to be graduated. It has its origins in Scottish English, and that is where most of its uses are to be found.

The earliest use I’ve found is in a classified ad in the Glasgow Herald of 7 September 1880:

GRADUAND. Prizetaker in almost every class, experienced, wishes Tutorship. French and German, besides ordinary subjects.

The word merited an entry in the 1882 edition of Ogilvie’s Imperial Dictionary of the English Language:

Graduand (grad´ū-and), n. A student who has passed his examinations for a degree but has not yet been capped.

Note that the publisher of this dictionary, Blackie and Son, was originally a Glaswegian firm.

There is also this, from a 27 February 1892 letter published in the Glasgow Herald about examination standards at a local university:

In its application to the Faculty of Arts, this preliminary examination is so hedged about by conditions that it works out in this way. Every graduand must pass in English at the higher standard; must pass Latin, Greek, or Mathematics at the higher standard if he proposes to continue the study of these subjects respectively at the university and at the lower standard if he does not; in the remaining subjects, French, German, Italian, at the higher standard.

Graduand was never in widespread use, and while it can still occasionally be seen, its occurrence today is vanishingly rare.

Sources:

“Graduand” (classified ad). Glasgow Herald, 7 September 1880, 2/3. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers.

The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language, new edition, vol. 2 of 4. John Ogilvie and Charles Annandale, eds. London: Blackie and Son, 1882, s.v. graduand, n. HathiTrust Digital Library.

“The New University Ordinances” (letter, 27 February 1892). Glasgow Herald, 29 February 1892, 12/1. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, 1900, s.v. graduand, n.

Photo credit: McElspeth, 2018. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.